Business is good and you’re busy implementing and fulfilling all the jobs in-house. Business is slow and you’re out there hustling like crazy to bring in some business.

You network when it is slow; you cease your networking efforts when you are busy.

Sound familiar? My advice, stop this cycle now.

Networking is an ONGOING activity that enables you to keep the flow of new contacts coming into your sales pipeline ,as well as for you to maintain connections with existing networking “buddies” and referral sources.

Sure you might have to slow it down a bit when you are in the midst of a big project or have a tight deadline, but stop altogether, ’fraid not.

Like business prospecting (and I include strategic networking as a prospecting methodology), as soon as you stop your activities you can project when the slowdown in your business will occur.

It’s like turning off the water faucet. It slows to a trickle and then stops. That might be fine with water but it surely doesn’t work with business development.

Sure it is difficult to be “out there” when you have work to do in the office or with a client. Here are some things you can implement that will have maximum results yet require minimum time:

Make a plan to attend 1-2 networking meetings or events per month. C’mon, you can fit that into your calendar.

Reach out by phone to 5 existing or dormant clients per week with the goal of growing or reopening the business that you do with them.

Reach out to 1 of your strategic networking partners per week (more if you have the time!) simply to stay in contact and see how you can help each other.

Create a newsletter so that you maintain visibility and credibility. (Connect with me if you need help with that!)

Stay active on your business social media.

NONE of these initiatives take much time but will do the trick when work gets in the way of your networking activities. Heck, you should be doing them anyway even when you have the luxury of time. In most cases it’s not the time, it’s the mindset of being “too busy” to do anything else. Get past it.

Remember out of sight, out of mind can lead to a terrible downturn in booked business and associated revenues.